Michigan All-Access: Morgan an unlikely hero for Wolverines

It took all 40 minutes to put away Syracuse, but Michigan was able to survive and advance to Monday’s championship game against the Louisville Cardinals with a 61-56 win over the Orange on Saturday.

While the likes of Mitch McGary and Tim Hardaway Jr. were the ones enjoying the spotlight after the win, it was the play of Jordan Morgan, who played a part in two of the biggest moments in Saturday’s game, that helped the Wolverines continue their season, writes Nick Baumgardner of MLive.com:

Michigan's 6-foot-8 junior forward came up with the biggest play of his season -- and probably his career -- Saturday night when he slid in front of Syracuse guard Brandon Triche with 19 seconds to go, drawing a charge and preserving a two-point lead in the national semifinals.

After the Wolverines forced a stop in the final seconds, Michigan tossed the ball up-court to a streaking Morgan -- who slammed down the final two points of the game with authority.

• Luckily for Michigan, Chris Webber wasn’t on the floor this time around. With less than two minutes to play and no timeouts remaining, the Michigan coaching staff wanted to make sure their team did not repeat one of the most infamous mistakes in college basketball history:

The Wolverines were pressured, and pressured and pressured more in the final two minutes of the game.

Their youth showed a few times, as they missed four three throws in the final 50 seconds of the game, allowing Syracuse to inch back into things.

The Orange actually shot better from the field than the Wolverines, 41 percent to 39 percent. The difference proved to be from behind the three-point line, where Syracuse shot just 3 of 14 and Michigan made 8 of 24.

"That's the difference in the game when you really look at it," Boeheim said. "They hit two deep threes at the end of the shot clock, which, you know, that happens sometimes.